What’s the matter with Arizona?

Just when it seemed Arizona Republicans couldn’t go much further, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R) is now questioning President Obama’s citizenship and isn’t sure whether to allow the president onto the 2012 ballot.

Bennett’s comments came in an interview late Thursday with conservative radio talk show host Mike Broomhead on Phoenix station KFYI.

Bennett said he was following the lead of the state’s eccentric Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a fellow Republican who ordered an investigation into the president’s birth certificate last year and concluded the document released by the White House is a forgery. Bennett said he is now trying to get verification from state officials in Hawaii that the certificate is authentic.

In doing so, Bennett caved to a fringe group of activists and writers who believe in a conspiracy theory that just never seems to die no matter how much proof they get.

After denying being a Birther, Bennett said, “I believe the president was born in Hawaii – or at least I hope he was. But my responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking.”

And in this case, Bennett – the public official in charge of running Arizona’s elections – isn’t sure if the president should be on the ballot.

He’s also said Obama’s birth certificate isn’t good enough to meet Bennett’s standards, and it’s “possible” he’ll exclude the president from the ballot, though he says he doesn’t want to.

So, to recap, it’s been over a year since the White House, hoping to end the borderline-racist garbage once and for all, released President Obama’s “long form” birth certificate. But just over the last couple of months, three members of Congress – Reps. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) – have all publicly questioned Obama’s citizenship status. Now, Arizona’s Secretary of State is stuck in the fever swamp, too.

Why are there so many polls showing so much confusion about basic tenets of reality? In part because we have public officials like these folks spewing nonsense.